November 15, 2011

Pizza Counts as a Vegetable? How the Spending Bill in Congress Could Unravel Progress on School Nutrition

by Mark Bishop, vice president of policy and communications

This week Congress is supposed to vote on a spending bill to keep the government running, a bill that because of last-minute additions now contains language that allows pizza to be counted as a vegetable in a school lunch.

In this good AP article about the bill, the reality reads a bit like a bad joke: a frozen pizza maker, a salt producer and a french fry walk into a school cafeteria. . . but this is not funny:

The final version of a spending bill released late Monday would unravel school lunch standards the Agriculture Department proposed earlier this year. These include limiting the use of potatoes on the lunch line, putting new restrictions on sodium and boosting the use of whole grains. The legislation would block or delay all of those efforts.

The bill also would allow tomato paste on pizzas to be counted as a vegetable, as it is now. . . .

Nutritionists say the whole effort is reminiscent of the Reagan administration's much-ridiculed attempt 30 years ago to classify ketchup as a vegetable to cut costs. This time around, food companies that produce frozen pizzas for schools, the salt industry and potato growers requested the changes and lobbied Congress.

I’m stunned, and I honestly don’t know where to start. So how about a quick reminder of the good old days, back two years ago when the Institute of Medicine announced -- without a great deal of controversy -- science-based recommendations for improving school food and improving the health of our nation’s children. The recommendations included things like serving students a greater variety of vegetables and more whole grains while cutting back on sodium. The consensus was that this was a thoughtful report and that changes in line with these recommendations would support parents’ efforts to feed their kids well-balanced meals. We all knew that getting to the implementation stage would not be without challenges, but it was good to see that school nutrition standards would be updated with what amounted to science-backed common sense. Ah, the good old days.

Back to today. We’re now facing a policy decision that has replaced science-backed common sense with the assertion that pizza ought to count as a vegetable when it’s served to schoolchildren.

If you want to take a look at the bill’s language, go for it, but the main takeaway is this: our Congressional leaders are on a fast track to overrule nutrition science in favor of political expediency. This is a dangerous precedent to set and not good public policy.

We need to make sure this doesn’t happen again. The USDA is planning on releasing their nutrition standards for competitive school foods (food sold outside the school lunch program, such as in vending machines or school stores) this winter, and we need to let Congress know that these standards must prioritize kid’s health and nutrition science.

Botanically, squash is a fruit too. It's really less a matter of how we categorize tomatoes and more about the proportions we serve, and how much salt and sugar usually go along with it. Fruit or vegetable, wouldn't you be happy to see children eating ensalada caprese?

Thanks to everyone for weighing in and helping raise awareness of this issue. Our friends at PEW Charitable Trusts and the Center for Science in the Public Interest have both put together tools you can use to easily send a letter to your Congressional leaders letting them know you are disappointed with this decision and urging them to make kids' health and sound nutrition science a priority. You can access PEW's alert at http://bit.ly/t2UJHT and CSPI's alert at http://bit.ly/tMR3yn. Stay posted . . . we all need to speak up when the USDA takes on its next set of nutrition standards in the months ahead. For updates, sign up to receive HSC's newsletters and action alerts at http://bit.ly/vE8slU.

Wow how bizarre. I know as a kid I would have loved something like this being in effect. I used to spend almost all afternoon after school at pizza calgary and I had no idea that I was actually eating a vegetable.

Does pizza in Calgary count as a vegetable? I heard that they make it different up here but it's still the same ingredients and same thing right. I think it still counts. http://www.chicagodeepdishpizza.com

I do not believe that pizza should be considered a vegetable, even if it has a lot of vegetables on it it should not be considered one. That is really crazy. I know it is good and all, but it is not a vegetable.

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